JURIST - Paper Chase: Uganda president says LRA leaders to stand trial at home, not at ICC

[JURIST] Leaders of Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) [MIPT backgrounder; JURIST news archive] will stand trial in Uganda rather than at the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] at The Hague, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni told AP Tuesday. Museveni said that the Ugandan government and LRA had reached a deal to try some LRA members under a traditional mediation system. Other Ugandan officials have said a special war crimes court will be established [JURIST report] to try LRA members accused of crimes against humanity. The government has previously said that rebel leader Joseph Kony [BBC profile] was willing to face trial at home [JURIST report], but not at the ICC.

Previously, the LRA has refused to sign a final peace agreement with the Ugandan government unless the ICC withdraws its indictments [ICC materials; JURIST report] of LRA leaders. Museveni denied that the decision to deal with LRA members domestically was linked to the peace agreement, instead saying that local communities most victimized by LRA fighting had called for the rebel leaders to be tried in Uganda. AP has more.

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